February 20, 2003 -- "Ghost in the Shell" (Kokaku kidotai) is a philosophical science fiction animated feature from Japan that poses the question, is there any humanity left in a person when most of their body and brains are replaced by machines and computers? The film explores basic questions like, what is a soul? Can a computer program be a person? Not only is it a thoughtful story, but it has nudity and violence, too. In short, it is not your average cartoon.

The heroine of the film is the shapely cyborg, Maj. Motoko Kusanagi, a member of "Section Nine" one of several competing government intelligence units. During a routine operation, section nine comes into contact with "The Puppet Master" an elusive foe who is trying to hack into government databases using very clever and sophisticated methods. It is discovered that the Puppet Master is linked to another government intelligence unit called Section Six. Kusanagi becomes obsessed with the Puppet Master. She relentlessly pursues a plan to jack into the Puppet Master's consciousness and learn his secrets before Section Six can kill him.

The plot revolves around the nature of cyborgs in the future. They are part human, part robot, part computer. The "shell" is their artificial body, while their "ghost" is their personality, their soul, which is sometimes embedded in a computer, rather than an organic brain. Kusanagi is treated as a human, even though she is mostly, if not all, machine. She begins to wonder if she is human at all. She begins to think she would not be human if others did not treat her as one. This is akin to the Buddhist notion that, absent the proper context, there is no self. The quest of both Kusanagi and the Puppet Master, is, in essence, to escape the self and interface more directly with the rest of the universe. The Internet, by the way, is key to this idea of a selfless existence in the context of the film.

While there is plenty of food for thought in this film, the characters are a little too verbose for their own good. All of this discussion slows down the pace of the movie. There is a tendency for the story to be advanced through dialogue rather than action. I saw this film on videotape with an English language dubbed soundtrack. The dubbing wasn't bad, but it was not as good as some of the better anime dubs of movies such as "Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust," "Princess Mononoke," "Ninja Scroll," and "Spirited Away." Character development is also minimal. While the film is sometimes slow going, it is great to look at with some terrific artwork. The animation is jerky, as was often the case with anime of this, and earlier vintages (this film was released in 1995). Advances in computer animation have helped to increase the smoothness and fluidity of motion in anime films in recent years, probably by increasing the number of cels per second of film projection. Some anime movies, especially the older films, had far fewer cels per second than the best American feature animated films. The best American animation features run from 12 to 24 cels per second. Using 12 unique cells per second is called running in twos, since every cel is repeated once to make up the 24 fps movie speed. The top animation detail of 24 cels per second is used in films like "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" and "Space Jam" where cartoon characters appear on screen with real life characters. It is also used where finer kinds of motions are depicted. Cheaper American animated films also use fewer cels per second. This film rates a B.

Click here for links to places to buy this movie in video and/or DVD format, the soundtrack, books, even used videos, games and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.